Tipton hones in on Pinon Canyon

Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., is asking Army officials to conduct several public hearings when they ask the federal Bureau of Land Management for official permission to continue using property within the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site for training. The Army request isn't unexpected and BLM approval is almost a certainty, but Tipton's call for multiple public hearings signals that the Republican congressman for the 3rd Congressional District is staying focused on the Pinon Canyon dispute — a five-year-old battle between the Army and the Southeastern Colorado ranchers who oppose the Pentagon's efforts to expand the 238,000-acre training range. Last month, Tipton was under close scrutiny when the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction approved a 2012 budget plan, which left out a yearly moratorium that forbids the Army from spending any money to expand Pinon Canyon. The funding ban has been a major roadblock to the Army since 2008. Simply put, BLM controls 2,500 acres within Pinon Canyon and the subsurface mineral rights to 130,000 more acres. When the training range northeast of Trinidad was first created in the early 1980s, the Army obtained permission to override those BLM claims in order to use the land. That permission expires this year, but a 15-year renewal is fully expected. Even so, the Army is required to conduct a public hearing as part of that process...more